


The Sword-Bearer

by Cerdic519



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-08
Updated: 2013-09-08
Packaged: 2017-12-25 23:55:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/959114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerdic519/pseuds/Cerdic519
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas and Dean are finally together, but all is not well in Heaven. Gabriel has to find a sword-bearer in the nine days before Christmas, or yield his position as sheriff to the obnoxious Uriel. And worse, in a moment of stupidity, Gabriel states there's only one person he would ever consider for the job. Can he persuade Sam to accept eternity with the former Trickster?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sword-Bearer

It was Cas’ and Dean’s second Christmas together, and it was almost perfect. Dean had retired from hunting and gotten a job he loved at the local crisis management centre, Cas was working at the library part-time and also doing translation work from home, Sam had finished Stamford and gotten himself a position at a nearby law firm, and Cas and Dean finally had each other.  
Yes, almost perfect. Until Christmas Day rolled around, when Dean got the one present he’d always wanted but never thought he’d get.  
Then it was perfect.  
But we need to go back a bit first.  
   
December 16th  
Dean knew there was trouble the minute he got home. There was a delicious smell of apple pie in the air, and Cas only baked apple pie when he had news Dean would certainly not like.  
“Gabriel’s back.”  
Okay, make that news he would utterly hate with every single fibre of his being.  
“Haven’t we suffered enough?” he grumbled through a mouthful of pie and cream. “I mean, I know he laid his life on the line for us, but I was really hoping not to see your brother for a time. A few millennia would’ve been nice!”  
“Father brought him back to be the new sheriff of Heaven”, Castiel said, cutting another slice of pie, this time adorning it with soft ice-cream. He wisely waited for Dean to finish eating his current mouthful before adding, “it’s partly your fault, actually.”  
Dean stared at his husband.  
“Say that again?”  
Castiel sighed, and placed the third portion of pie in front of Dean, before moving behind his husband and beginning to rub his broad shoulders.  
“It’s like this”, he began gently. “After the Apocalypse was averted, many angels wanted things to go back to just the way they were before, looking down on humanity as beneath them in every sense. But some, including myself, felt that humanity had proven itself a worthy ally in the battle, and wanted to strengthen the links between us. Unfortunately we were in the minority, and it seemed the naysayers would win the day.”  
“What happened?” Dean asked curiously.  
“You did.”  
“Eh?”  
“When you and I came together, nearly everyone in heaven was sure it wouldn’t work. But the fact it has means that those who want a more open bond between humans and angels are gaining strength. And now Gabriel is back, the forces are equally balanced. Or rather, they were.”  
“Were?”  
“Do you remember Uriel?”  
Dean groaned. He had little time for angels other than Castiel, but he could remember the tall, dark-winged cousin of his, an angel with an almost permanent sneer. Uriel had been in charge of the party which had first checked Dean out long before he met Castiel in the barn; they’d all been invisible, but somehow Dean had seemed to sense his future husband. Apparently Uriel had gotten into a lot of trouble over that, and had subsequently disliked Dean intensely, a feeling that Dean returned in spades.  
“Uriel is on the High Council, along with Gabriel. My brother’s return has seriously annoyed him, as he wanted to be leader himself one day. So he has challenged Gabriel.”  
Something in Dean’s gut gave him a bad feeling about this conversation.  
“Go on”, he said warily.  
“Rule 84 of the Council Regulations states that no angel shall be head of the council unless he has a sword-bearer”, Castiel explained. “Gabriel has mated many times, but he has never acquired a sword-bearer in all that time, and if he cannot find one in nine days, he will be forced to step down.”  
“I don’t see the problem”, Dean said, frowning. “I mean, he’s an archangel. There must be millions of people who’d say yes to him.”  
“There probably are. But unfortunately, Gabriel declared in front of the Council that there was only one person he would accept, and Uriel then dared him to win that person as his sword-bearer in the time allowed.”  
A horrible feeling of where this was leading spread through Dean’s gut.  
Sammy!  
   
December 17th  
Sam Winchester woke to a bright early morning, the sound of birds singing outside his window, and the presence of someone lying alongside him in his bed. With practised ease, he shot sideways and rolled the intruder up in the blanket, only to find, to his amazement, that he’d disappeared.  
“Hi, Sam.”  
Damn!  
“Oh. It’s you!”  
“Yup, the archangel who saved your bacon last apocalypse.”  
“Truly grateful, Gabriel”, he muttered. “Haven’t you got someone else you could torture? I’ve got work to be getting to.”  
“Aw, come on, Sam. Please?”  
“What do you want, Gabriel?”  
“Just a little time with my buds…”  
“Stop right there!” Sam almost screamed. He counted to ten before letting himself carry on, only slightly calmer. “In the first place, after everything you’ve done to Dean and me – Hell, even to your own brother Cas! – you are several galaxies away from ever being our ‘bud’!”  
“Sam!”  
The younger Winchester did feel just the slightest pang at the hurt look on the archangel’s face, but he knew from bitter experience just how manipulative Gabriel could be. He hardened his heart.  
“I can’t stop you being here” (and his tone added very clearly my God, I wish I could!), and I’m grateful for the Apocalypse and all that, but you’re nothing but trouble. I’d prefer to be alone, if you don’t mind.”  
“’Kay.” And Gabriel was gone.  
Sam was astonished. He hadn’t thought it would be that easy.  
Of course, it wasn’t.  
   
December 18th  
Sam woke the following morning to find a small white bag on the bedside cabinet. Cautiously opening it, he groaned when he saw it contained sherbert lemons. Damned Gabriel! The archangel knew those were his favourites. He felt so annoyed, he restricted himself to just two of them (that’s two, the number between eight and ten).  
   
“Why won’t you like me, Sam?”  
Sam, he thought. Not Sam-i-am, Sammikins, or one of the other daft and sometimes outright lewd names he calls me. Hmm….  
“I don’t trust you, Gabriel. You’ve pranked the three of us so often, we don’t believe you anymore. You can’t be trusted.”  
“So how can I make you trust me?” the archangel asked reasonably, sitting on the other bed and sucking a candy cane.  
“You can’t. Trust is like love. You can’t just make it appear. It grows over time.”  
“I don’t have….. Sam, I’m sorry for everything I did to you.”  
“And Dean?”  
Gabriel thought about that one.  
“Can I just be sorry about you?” he asked hopefully.  
“See? That’s what I mean.”  
“Eh?” The archangel looked puzzled.  
“Be honest. I know there’s no way you’re sorry about Dean. If you’d have said yes, I’d have known straightaway you were lying!”  
“So you just want me to be honest?”  
“Yes.”  
“Can I say something about your hair?”  
“No!”  
Gabriel grinned.  
   
December 19th  
The bag the next day contained assorted love hearts. At least, Sam thought they were assorted, but every single one had the legend ‘I’m sorry’ on it.  
Sorry for just what, Sam wondered.  
“Everything, Sam.”  
Fortunately he was past jumping when Gabriel arrived, but he felt annoyed that the trickster was in the room before he’d had time to dress.  
Gabriel was looking at him pensively.  
“You don’t just say a couple of words, and expect everything you’ve done in the past to be overlooked”, Sam said, almost wearily. He was tired, but he still noticed that the archangel didn’t seem his ebullient self. “Tell you what, Gabriel. If you say sorry to Dean and he accepts it, then I will.”  
Gabriel looked aghast.  
“He’ll laugh at me!”  
“If that’s all he does after what you put him and Cas through, then you’ve gotten off lightly”, he observed.  
Gabriel huffed, and vanished.  
   
Ten minutes later, Sam got a text from his brother. It contained the letters H and A repeated until space ran out.  
Apparently Dean wasn’t in a very forgiving mood today.  
   
December 20th  
Peanut brittle. Sam was going to have to start spending more time at the gym.  
   
He was showering after a workout there when he heard a familiar voice from the stall next to his.  
“I don’t understand you, Sam Winchester.”  
He quickly turned to he had his back to the archangel. Unfortunately he was in the middle of lathering, so there was no quick escape.  
“What’s there to understand?” he said lightly, rinsing off the suds as quickly as he could. “I’m a simple soul, really.”  
“I can see that from here.”  
Sam blushed.  
“You look cute when you do that”  
“Stop it, Gabe!”  
“And you called me Gabe!”  
“If you show up in the shower again, I’ll call you something else!”  
“Does that include the one at home, when you’re…”  
“Cut it out!  
Gabriel chuckled.  
“See, Sam?” he said, a smile in his voice. “Perhaps I do understand you, after all.”  
   
December 21st  
“Do you think you could ever love me, Sam?”  
The younger Winchester stopped eating marshmallows and looked across at the archangel thoughtfully.  
“I suppose if you keep bringing me sweets every day for the next thirty years, then we might have developed something vaguely approximating friendship at the end of that time”, he observed dryly.  
“Ouch!”  
“Come on, Gabe. You deal out the sort of crap you’ve put us through, then expect to just waltz in with a bag of sweeties and say ‘let’s make up’. I mean, you’re okay when you’re like this….”  
“Like what?”  
“Normal. Not the Trickster. But that’s the point. How do I know that you’re not going to change back again?”  
“I could promise you not to?”  
Sam laughed, but stopped when he saw the look on the archangel’s face.  
“I’m sorry, Gabe, but really? You, promise? That’s like…..  
Gabriel vanished.  
   
December 22nd  
Butterscotch, all the way from Bonnie Scotland. Sam had always wanted to go there, and see the history of his Campbell ancestors. He thought wryly that if he asked, the archangel would take him there in a flash.  
   
There was, strangely, no Gabriel that day. But there was a text from Dean telling him that Gabriel had sprung for four new wheel rims for the Impala and a set of books Cas had always wanted, and the two of them had decided to forgive him after all. Sam spent the rest of the day fully expecting the archangel to turn up and demand he fulfill his promise to forgive as well, but he never showed.  
He felt strangely cheated.  
   
December 23rd  
Love hearts again. All of them read ‘Be Mine’.  
   
“I really do mean it, you know.”  
Sam was getting ready to go shopping when Gabriel spoke from across the kitchen.  
“I forgive you”, he said, trying not to sound reluctant.  
“No you don’t, Sam. Be honest, remember?”  
The younger Winchester had to smile at his own words being used against him.  
“Fine!” he said resignedly. “Do that mind-reading thing. I formally give you permission. See if I mean it or not.”  
Gabriel looked uncertainly at him, then Sam felt the lightest of brushes in his mind.  
“Oh.”  
“Told you I meant it!” Sam almost snapped. “What is it, Gabe? I’ve got to go shopping, then I have to meet Dean afterward.”  
“Can I come with you?”  
“To meet Dean? Sam was surprised.  
“No, just for the shopping. It’s…. a new experience.”  
Sam shrugged his shoulders.  
“Okay”, he said. “But no lingering in the candy aisle.”  
“Aw, you’re no fun!”  
   
Shopping with Gabriel was surprisingly… normal. He didn’t immediately magic the whole shopping list into the cart, didn’t push ahead or hang back, and barely even looked as they went past the candy aisle. Sam was so surprised, he doubled back and got Gabriel a bar of chocolate caramel, which he knew he loved. The look on the archangel’s face was one of pure gratitude.  
Gabriel being not Gabriel was somehow working out.  
   
Christmas Eve  
Pear drops. Not the normal mixed variety, but only the yellow ones Sam preferred.  
“Sam?”  
“Uh huh?”  
“You know you talked about being honest?”  
A warning light flashed at the back of Sam’s consciousness.  
“Yes”, he said warily.  
“If I ask you something, would you answer me honestly?”  
“Why wouldn’t I? You could just tell if I was lying anyway?”  
“I just want to do things the normal way, for once.”  
“Okay, shoot.”  
“If I gave up all my powers for a while and came back to Earth, would you let me stay with you?”  
Okay, Sam wasn’t expecting that.”  
“Uh, why?”  
“I think…. I kinda hope we might be friends. Okay, I hoped we could be more, but… you said it takes time, and…”  
Sam stared at him in amazement.  
“Gabe, are you… propositioning me?”  
“Kinda.”  
“Wow!”  
Sam sat down suddenly on the bed, which groaned but held.   
“This is… big. I mean, big. I need time, Gabe.”  
“Sure. How long….?”  
“Give me till tomorrow. I have to sleep on this. I mean… wow!”  
Gabriel nodded, and vanished. Sam waited a few moments, then reached for his phone and sent a text.  
IS IT READY YET?  
The answer came back almost immediately.  
THE ITEM IS READY AS PLANNED, AS IS THE ASSOCIATED CLOTHING. I SHALL BRING EVERYTHING ROUND TOMORROW MORNING AS I AGREED. YOURS SINCERELY, CASTIEL.  
Sam grinned. It was cruel, but he was going to enjoy this.  
   
Christmas Day  
“You have failed, Gabriel!”  
If Uriel’s smirk had been any wider, it would have reached round the back of his head.  
“I know”, the archangel said, almost sadly. “The Council will have to appoint a new…”  
“Excuse me a moment”, came Castiel's voice.  
Both angels spun round, to find Castiel and Dean standing right behind them. Both were wearing Santa hats.  
“Ho ho ho!” Dean said cheerfully.  
Uriel glared at him.  
“Castiel, is there a reason for this?” he said icily.  
“Of course”, the ex-angel said brightly. “I was asked to bring Gabriel’s sword-bearer here.”  
Uriel’s jaw dropped, as did Gabriel’s.  
“Him?!” they exclaimed simultaneously, both looking at Dean in horror.  
Dean and Castiel grinned at each other for a moment, then each stepped to one side. Into the gap stepped Sam, kitted out in the blue-and-gold uniform of an angelic sword-bearer, and holding the newly-created scabbard. Stepping forward, he knelt before Gabriel, and offered it up to him.  
“Sam!” the archangel squeaked. “I… you….”  
“Eren kost y vrallis, zan’fell imiri”, he said proudly. “To my liege lord, I pledge my life.”  
“No!” roared Uriel. “You cannot do this!”  
He stepped towards Sam, only to find Gabriel’s archangel sword had been placed pointedly between them.   
“But you told me I could”, Sam said, looking at Uriel in surprise.  
Gabriel stared at Sam, shocked.  
“What?”  
“Uriel told me all I had to do was refuse your advances, and I could finally put one over on you”, he explained.  
“I only did that because you hated him!” Uriel shouted.  
There was an awkward silence.  
“Uriel”, Gabriel began coldly, “am I to understand you broke the rules and actually spoke to Sam?”  
“His idiot brother told me…..” Uriel began heatedly, then seemed to realize. He spun round at Dean. “You set me up!”  
Dean shrugged.  
“I never told you to tell him about the dare”, he said dryly. “I advised you strongly against it.”  
“You will leave the Council now, Uriel”, Gabriel said coldly.  
The dark-winged angel stormed out, followed by two of his acolytes. Gabriel turned slowly to Sam.  
“You knew!” he said accusingly. “You put me through nine days of hell, and….”  
Eren kost y vrallis, corrus imiri”, Sam said calmly.  
Gabriel seemed about to collapse.  
“To my liege lord, I pledge my heart. You said you wanted me, Gabe. I hope that was a time you were being honest, because now you’ve got me. For all eternity.”  
The archangel suddenly surged forward into Sam’s arms, and the human spun him round.  
“I am so going to make you pay for what you put me through!” he whispered.  
“Promise?”


End file.
